Why did Narayana Murthy call the rising AI trend in India as silly, old programs? Infosys co-founder shares areas with greater potential

Infosys co-founder, Narayana Murthy, while speaking at the TiECon Mumbai on Wednesday commented on the rising hype around artificial intelligence (AI) in India, claiming that many systems marketed today as AI were simply traditional programming.

“I think somehow it has become a fashion in India to talk of AI for everything. I have seen several normal, ordinary programs touted as AI,” Murthy commented during the annual entrepreneurial conference.

What are areas with greater potential?

In a discussion with Harish Mehta, founding president of TiE Mumbai, Murthy explained that true artificial intelligence is built on two key pillars: machine learning, which enables extensive correlation for predictions, and deep learning, which mimics human brain function using unsupervised algorithms.

«Frankly, most of what passes for AI these days is trivial and outdated coding,» Murthy asserted. «It's the unsupervised algorithms leveraging deep learning and neural networks that hold far greater promise for increasingly human-like capabilities.»

Murthy went on to add that deep learning will be able to solve, and handle what are called “unsupervised algorithms”. While machine learning by and large handles supervised algorithms because you have to give a lot of data into that, deep learning uses the data to create new branches of programs or new conditions. And then it will be able to take decisions.

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Murthy on India's poverty

Infosys Co-Founder N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday said job creation by innovative entrepreneurs, and not freebies, will help eliminate poverty. Speaking at the Tiecon Mumbai 2025 event here, Murthy exhorted entrepreneurs to focus on creating more businesses.

Poverty will «vanish» like dew on a